Embodiments of the inventive concept relate generally to electronic display technologies. More particularly, embodiments of the inventive concept relate to display systems that perform memory mapping based on image characteristics such as image format or size.
Many electronic devices incorporate a display system for presenting visual information to a user. Examples of such devices include notebook computers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants, and digital cameras, to name but a few.
A display system typically comprises a display and a mapping memory for storing image information to be shown on the display. The mapping memory stores the image information in memory locations that map to corresponding portions of the display. The mapping memory can store information to indicate how the stored image information maps onto the display.
In some display systems, image information is mapped to the mapping memory in units of tiles, where a tile comprises a region of an image, such as a rectangular segment. The shape and size of the tiles can be modified by a system designer based on various system characteristics or preferences. Each tile can be stored at an independent location in the mapping memory where it can be accessed independent of the other tiles. For instance, the tiles can be stored in different memory banks that be accessed in parallel.
By storing and accessing image tiles in parallel, the display system can improve the speed of refresh operations for the display. In addition, the display system can further improve the speed of refresh operations by reducing access latency of the mapping memory.